Helen Hutson
I was born Norwich.
I joined Jarrolds in the late 50’s
My father worked at Jarrolds.
I worked on and off for years. I got a job as a Saturday girl earning 12 and 6. Then during the holidays as a student, I worked in various departments as holiday jobs.
As a Saturday girl, I worked in the art department. Jarrold’s still has an Art Department, but it was much biggar then. It was very busy.
In the Art Department, everything was behind in a display case. There was nothing out for anybody to pick up, so everybody had to come to an assistant to ask for what they wanted or what they thought they wanted or for your advice. So you had to know a lot about the stock so that you could advise people on what you had or what they needed.
I was told what to do by the Assistant above me and then there was the Section Head who was a Senior Assistant and then there was the Deputy Buyer and the Chiefs up wherever they were.
I worked in lots of places as they knew me because of my father working there. So if they were short somewhere, they would say “ Can you go here or go there?” I used to work in the Restaurant quite a lot, clearing tables and waiting on people. I think that’s were I got my taste for catering, when I got involved in the Restaurant. It would be like a show – you know – you would get to 10 o’ clock and the hoards would descend for their first coffee of the day because everybody ate at Jarrold’s. So you were really non stop till about 4.30.
I worked in the Books and I worked on Cosmetics. I worked on all Departments. I worked in the back in the Stock Rooms and they used to just shove me in when they needed a helping hand.
When I started working on Saturdays the cattle market in Norwich was still in progress and sometimes I was late as I would be held up by a herd of cattle being driven down Hall Road or Ipswich Road into the cattle market in Norwich. So that didn’t go down very well!
I can remember when my father was there it used to be awful wooden display cases and wooden floors, no carpeting or anything and you would clump about. And they had a lovely lift that you see out of with a little person that you could see out of. I think it is the self service element that has come about that has been the biggest change. And I don’t think people know their stock quite as well as they used to, because they don’t sell it to you.
I think the biggest change recently is that it has become a sort of shop within a shop, where people don’t work for Jarrold’s or they do work for Jarrold’s, but they work for another firm as well. The choice is huge now. Before, they had everything, but only a little bit of everything. Now they have got a lot of things. But a lot of things have gone along the way like Fabrics, Haberdashery and Sports.
The hierarchy was flattening out more towards the end of my time there. You talked more to people, whereas when you first started, if you saw one of the Jarrold’s mooching around it was sort of “ There’s a Jarrold on the floor” but later on it was “ Oh look, there is Mr Richard” or “Look, there is someone else.” It wasn’t so frightening I think, in a way. Not less respectful, but more of a team.
They looked after their staff very well. They had a Sports Club. You had subsidised lunches that everybody liked. The discount that you could get, when you were working there.
When I started I was paid s12 d6.
People used to meet up at lunch time. They used to play cards at lunch time and they used to have the sports ground and the social ground and I can remember, when I was very little going up to the sports ground and they had a Father Christmas and all the children of the workers you got a toy and they gave you entertainment and they gave you a meal. But obviously, that went by the board as the firm expanded as they couldn’t possibly do that.
Jarolds made their contribution to the city, I think it’s because it’s family run. The Jarrold’s are well known. They contribute a great deal to Norfolk and Norwich – to the arts and all sorts of organisations, if you look at the list of sponsorship, you’ll always see the Jarrold’s name. I think it has been a pivotal store in Norwich. It has been in the forefront of change. You can always go in and say to somebody “Look, I don’t know what I want, can you help me.” And I reckon that you need something a little bit out of the ordinary, I still believe that you could find it somewhere in Jarrold’s.
